we've seen people coming out, people like bob costas, even rupert murdoch, bill o'reilly, talking about sensible measures. the american public wants to solve this problem. and sometimes it takes an event like this really to catalyze things. in 1989 there was a horrible school shooting where 35 people were shot in stockton, california. and that was the catalyst for some of the major legislation that passed soon after that. so i think we have to -- we need to push and it requires the american public speaking up and making their voice heard. but this is a conversation that the american public wants to have. and we need to make sure that congress and the president want to have it too. >> congressman nadler, do you stand with the mayor of new york when he says that what we have not seen is leadership from the white house and not from the congress? >> we certainly haven't seen leadership on this issue in a good number of years. i was heartened that the president said today that we have to take meaningful action. unless that's simply empty rhetoric, that means that the president is thinking, a